Fantastic Four #1

A team book to answer a rival

Fantastic Four #1 began as a business instruction. Publisher Martin Goodman had noticed that a team title from a competing publisher, Justice League of America, was selling well, and he told his comics editor, Stan Lee, to produce a superhero team of his own. As Lee told it in 1974, Goodman asked: "If the Justice League is selling, why don't we put out a comic book that features a team of superheroes?"

Lee had been editing comics for about two decades and found the work creatively confining. He later wrote that he decided, "for just this once," to write the kind of story he would enjoy reading, with heroes who had "faults and foibles" and "feet of clay." The result was a family of quarreling adventurers rather than a club of perfect heroes.

The issue went on sale on August 8, 1961, with a November 1961 cover date. It cost 10 cents and ran 36 pages, with the Fantastic Four story split into three chapters: "The Fantastic Four!," "The Fantastic Four Meet the Mole Man!" and "The Moleman's Secret!" Its cover, with the team fighting a giant monster in the street, was penciled by Jack Kirby.

Who made it, and who gets the credit

Lee and Kirby worked in what became known as the Marvel Method. Lee said he wrote a synopsis for Kirby to follow; Kirby penciled the pages and Lee then added dialogue and captions. The approach worked so well that it became the company's standard within a year.

Who did what has been argued for decades. In 1968 Lee said the team was "mainly my idea, but Jack created characters visually." Kirby, in a 1970 interview, said "It was my idea," while acknowledging that the two "talked things out," and in 1990 he called Lee's version "an outright lie," a remark the interviewer himself cautioned should be read carefully. A typed Lee synopsis for the first issue survives, but historians note it cannot show whether it was written before or after the two men talked. Mark Evanier, who worked as Kirby's assistant in the 1970s, says the view of their colleagues was that the book "was created by Stan and Jack."

Even the inking was long uncertain. Chris Rule and Dick Ayers were once suggested; Ayers said he inked neither the cover nor the interior. Comics historians Michael Vassallo and Nick Caputo, after comparing hundreds of samples, identify George Klein as the inker, with corrections likely by Sol Brodsky, and Mark Evanier agrees on Klein. A later letters page relayed a claim from the Kirby family that Artie Simek inked the first issue; the standard index of credits keeps Klein. Stan Goldberg's coloring credit was disclosed only in February 2011.

Cosmic rays and the Moleman

The issue introduced Reed Richards (Mister Fantastic), Sue Storm (the Invisible Girl), her brother Johnny (the Human Torch) and Ben Grimm (the Thing), four civilians who gain powers after cosmic rays strike them during an unauthorized flight in Richards's experimental rocket. They wore street clothes in this first issue; their uniforms came later.

Their first opponent was the Moleman, spelled as one word until 1964, a recluse who rules a subterranean world and sends monsters to the surface. The plot of explorers traveling beneath the earth echoes the 1959 film Journey to the Center of the Earth; neither Lee nor Kirby named the film as an inspiration, though Goodman was known for following popular trends.

The space-race origin fit its year. In 1961 Alan Shepard became the first American in space and President Kennedy told Congress the country should land a man on the moon before the decade was out.

The unexpected success

The book was an unexpected success. Lee had been ready to quit comics, and the response persuaded him to stay. Fan mail arrived quickly enough that a letters column began with the third issue, along with the slogan "The Greatest Comic Magazine in the World!!," changed with issue #4 to "The World's Greatest Comic Magazine!"

Issue #4 brought back Namor the Sub-Mariner and issue #5 introduced Doctor Doom. Over the following years the series introduced the Inhumans, the Black Panther, the Kree and the Skrulls, and, beginning in issue #48 in March 1966, Galactus and the Silver Surfer. Kirby drew the first 102 issues before leaving Marvel in 1970.

The team has been adapted for the screen several times: an unreleased 1994 film, features in 2005, 2007 and 2015, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps in 2025.

The copies and the record

Fantastic Four #1 survives in real numbers by the standards of early Marvel keys: slightly more than 3,000 copies had been graded by CGC as of September 2024. Very few are in top condition. At that time the census showed only eight copies above VF/NM 9.0, and only two at NM+ 9.6, with none higher. In April 2022 there were three copies at 9.2.

The issue crossed $1 million for the first time in April 2022, when a CGC 9.2 copy with white pages sold at auction for $1.5 million, the first seven-figure sale for any Fantastic Four title. That copy came from a collection known as the Truckee Meadows Collection.

On September 12, 2024, one of the two CGC 9.6 copies, with white pages, sold at auction for $2,040,000, the highest public price for the issue. The Silver Age auction record still belonged to a CGC 9.6 Amazing Fantasy #15, which brought $3.6 million in 2021. The auction house said it had never before sold a copy of this issue graded above 9.2. One of the two 9.6 copies had earlier changed hands in 2008 in a cash-and-trade deal reported at around $450,000.

The numbers

Print run

No figure verified; not stated by the sources used

CGC census, September 2024

Slightly more than 3,000 copies graded; 8 above 9.0; 2 at 9.6; none higher

CGC census, April 2022

3 copies at 9.2, with 5 graded higher

Pages

36, including a 13-page opening chapter and two 6-page chapters

Cover price

10 cents

Timeline

1. Aug 8, 1961

   Fantastic Four #1 goes on sale, cover-dated November 1961.

2. May 1962

   Issue #4 brings back Namor the Sub-Mariner.

3. Jul 1962

   Issue #5 introduces Doctor Doom.

4. Jan 1964

   Issue #22 changes the villain's name from 'Moleman' to 'Mole Man.'

5. Mar 1966

   Issue #48 begins the Galactus Trilogy, introducing Galactus and the Silver Surfer.

6. 1970

   Jack Kirby leaves Marvel after drawing the first 102 issues.

7. 2005

   The first released Fantastic Four feature film opens.

8. 2008

   One of the two CGC 9.6 copies changes hands in a cash-and-trade deal reported at around $450,000.

9. Feb 2011

   Stan Goldberg is disclosed as the issue's colorist.

10. Apr 2022

    A CGC 9.2 copy sells at auction for $1.5 million, the first seven-figure Fantastic Four sale.

11. Sep 12, 2024

    A CGC 9.6 copy sells at auction for $2,040,000, the record for the issue.

12. 2025

    The Fantastic Four: First Steps is released.

The world in 1961

• Jan 20, 1961

  John F. Kennedy is sworn in as the 35th president.

• Mar 1, 1961

  Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps.

• Apr 17, 1961

  The Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba begins; it fails by April 19.

• May 4, 1961

  The Freedom Riders begin interstate bus rides to test desegregation.

• May 5, 1961

  Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space.

• May 25, 1961

  Kennedy asks Congress to commit to landing a man on the moon before the decade ends.

• Jul 21, 1961

  Gus Grissom becomes the second American in space.

• Oct 1, 1961

  Roger Maris hits his 61st home run, breaking Babe Ruth's single-season record.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Fantastic Four #1 is number 7 of 100 in the comics entries of the FLOAT 100. 92 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (8 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Fantastic Four #1 exists because Marvel's publisher noticed a rival's team book, Justice League of America, was selling well.
• Stan Lee was ready to leave comics when the issue came out; its success kept him in the business.
• The team wears ordinary clothes in the first issue. The blue uniforms came later.
• The villain was spelled 'Moleman,' one word, until issue #22 in January 1964.
• The colorist of the issue, Stan Goldberg, was not publicly credited until February 2011.
• Jack Kirby drew the first 102 issues of the series before leaving Marvel in 1970.
• As of September 2024, more than 3,000 copies had been graded, but only two reached 9.6.